Mark tells us that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem (Mark 10:32) and passed through Jericho on the way (Mark 10:46, 52). So, when we come to Mark 11:1 Jesus is on Mount Olivet near to Jerusalem and Bethany. Some translations want to put Jesus in Bethany,[1] and some scholars, commenting on the text, tell us that Jesus spent the Sabbath in Bethany, before going to Jerusalem. That is, Jesus journeyed from Jericho to Bethany and then to Jerusalem, but clearly this isn’t so. Mark 11:1 puts Jesus on Mount Olivet near to Jerusalem and Bethany, coming from Jericho. After entering Jerusalem, Jesus later left for Bethany before sunset (Mark 11:11). Some may ask, is this important? I would say, while it isn’t important to one’s salvation, yet it is important, if one wishes to know the details of Jesus’ final week on earth, before he was crucified. If one is interested in those details, one must be faithful in the little, seemingly insignificant, details (Luke 16:10; cp. Matthew 25:21; Luke 19:17). Only then could one be confident that he had a full and accurate knowledge of what Jesus said and did, during the final week his life—in as much as such a thing is possible.
Mark also mentions a place called Bethphage, but is this a village or a place on the mount? The word is Aramaic and is mentioned only three times in the Bible (Matthew 21:1; Mark 11:1 and Luke 19:29). Matthew doesn’t mention Bethany but says only that Jesus arrived at Bethphage, near Jerusalem, and places it on Mount Olivet (Matthew 21:1). If we allow Matthew to interpret Mark, we can understand that Jesus had arrived at Mount Olivet at a place known as Bethphage, which was near to both Jerusalem and Bethany (Mark 11:1). At this point Jesus sent two of his disciples into the village (Bethany) to get a colt, which was to be brought to him (Mark 11:2). If Jesus had come to Bethany before going to Jerusalem, as some presume, why didn’t he bring the colt with him when he left Bethany?
Clearly, Matthew puts Jesus at Bethphage and on Mount Olivet (Matthew 21:1), and, once there, he sent the disciples into a village (Bethany), so Bethphage probably isn’t, itself, a village. Its exact location on the mount is unknown, but it is mentioned a few times in the Babylonian Talmud as Beth Pagi.[2] Some believe it to be part of Jerusalem, but, if this is true, it would have to be a part of its suburbs, because Jesus arrived at Bethphage, while still on Mount Olives.
An interesting point might be that Bethphage literally means the house of green figs or the house of unripe figs.[3] Thus, by mentioning Bethphage, Mark could have been pointing to something significant that Jesus would do later in Mark’s record, namely, that Jesus would curse a fig tree on the way from Bethany to Jerusalem (cp. Matthew 21:18-20), because it hadn’t any fruit on it, and immediately it began to wither and die (Mark 11:12-14; cp. verse-20). Nevertheless, the only probable point we can make about Bethphage is its general location. It was part of Mount Olivet, and perhaps a part of Jerusalem’s suburbs.
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[1] See the CEV, Weymouth and Williams translations of the Bible.
[2] Two examples can be found in the Babylonian Talmud, “Sanhedrin” 14b.
[3] See the Pulpit Commentary and Unger’s Bible Dictionary respectively.
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